Playing games 1UP at a time

I’ve been tagged to answer a set of questions by Blizzy over at The Anikatuski. Thank you sir for engaging me in this wonderful Q&A session. Please visit his site, follow, comment, like etc. He is a good guy with good content. Here are the rules for this challenge:

This weekend I found some extra cash in my budget so I wandered into a nearby Gamestop looking for a deal. Instead I was reminded of this fact: there is a new Yakuza game out.

I’m by no means a Yakuza series vet. I’ve played 4, 5 and now 0. I was slightly disappointed that Yakuza 5 came out on the PS3 instead of the PS4. I understand that it comes out in Japan like 3 years in advance though. Maybe I should wish for a global release date next time instead.

I just tried out the new DLC for the Playroom VR called Toy Wars. It is a shooter game where you fight off enemies with a mini gun that is controlled by moving the controller. The video below hardly does it justice but it is extremely fun. You feel so small compared to all of the enemies. Stick around to the end to check out my super cool pose.

Hyper Void came out for current generation (and one past generation – PS3) consoles in February of 2015. Like most indie video games, it flew right under my radar. I was probably still playing Diablo III Reaper of Souls at that time. Anyway, it ended up as one of the freebies on PlayStaion Plus awhile back. Every month when the Plus games release, I add them to my library (never to be played) in hopes that one day instead of spending more money on games, I’ll reflect back upon them and strike gold with something that snuck in to their release window.

So Hyper Void got “purchased” and forgotten about. That is until I was browsing /r/PSVR and saw that the developers released a VR mode. I’m confused why that wasn’t pushed considering the PSVR just came out right around that time. Anyway I threw my headset on and jumped in the game. I was not disappointed.

I’m making a point this year to watch (hopefully) all of the 2016 Oscar nominated Movies and Animated Movies before the awards come out at the end of February. I have only been watching the Oscars for a few years now but I seem to recall that every year I wonder “Why didn’t [movie] get nominated?” (Starwars, Dr. Strange). I realize that it is about the artistic approach and all of that, but sometimes Sci-fi is just REALLY good.

Anyway, this post isn’t a rant about my opinions on the Oscars or not, it is about Kubo. I’m going to try to keep it spoiler free and just talk about how I felt.

This weekend I got frustrated with Overwatch not giving me any of the limited time items in the loot boxes I earned (except for Junkrat, who I never use), so I decided to go through my backlog and start something up that I never finished.

Last night I was playing my daily dose of Overwatch and I decided to switch things up. According my my Overwatch “Career Profile” I’ve logged the following:

167 games played (still a noob, not the point)

81 played as Zenyatta

21 as Hanzo (yup, I’m that guy)

19 as Torbjorn (one of my up and coming favorites)

Whatever’s left is everyone else (6 more characters)

So yeah, I don’t branch out often. Last night I was watching the good ole play of the game and I saw someone absolutely wrecking shop as Symmetra. I thought to myself, wow she looks like a fun character to play as, so the next match I gave her a shot. I’m hooked. I can’t believe I haven’t tried other characters. I enjoy Zenyatta so much that I thought the game wouldn’t be as fun without him.

Now I’m compelled to give every character a shot. I think it will be fun. I used to care about K/D (I’d be lying if I said I 100% didn’t now, but it’s not what drives me to play), but with Overwatch that information seems minimized compared to playing the objectives. There is no Team Deathmatch modes and I believe that fosters a unique environment where players can experiment “risk free” with new characters. I think I’ll do just that.

So maybe my new main will be Symmetra. Maybe I just like playing Capture the Flag with her because I can get easy kills hiding turrets by the flag. Who knows? One things for sure though, I’ve only scratched the very deep surface of this game and I’m excited for what is to come.

Oh yeah! Along with 4 slots for sprays they also added 4 slots for voice lines, and cool new ways to navigate to them. Sweet!

Let me be brutally honest, I am extremely apprehensive when it comes to anything related to horror. I’ve never played a Resident Evil for this reason. I know some things ab0ut the games but I was too young to follow the happenings in 1, 2, and 3. When I started paying attention to video game news 4 was on the way and I knew enough to stay away.

Lately everyone has been talking about how 7 has revitalized the series in a new way. It is horror at it’s core and people are loving it. I seem to think it odd that the first thing I heard about 7 some time ago was the compatibility with the PSVR. The entire game was going to be in VR. I thought “Wow! Tremendous that such a big title is getting full VR support!” but shockingly enough it seems like that talking point is looked over almost everywhere I go. (Save for /r/PSVR and a small excerpt here and there complaining about the 30 degree turning).

The Year of the Rooster event is the newest themed event in the Overwatch world and I had a blast playing it last night. I got 3 of the new “Lunar Loot Boxes” but nothing but more sprays and some voice lines. I did really well with the Christmas event, I ended up getting almost all of the custom Christmas skins (minus Zenyatta, which I’m still kind of upset about). I am still rocking Santa Torbjorn for now. I hope to get the Reinhardt skin and the Zenyatta skin. Everything else is just a bonus. I really like D.VA’s but I don’t really ever play as her. If I happen upon it, that might change.

Capture the flag was pretty fun (for Bastion players). If you enjoy camping but haven’t had any luck in Overwatch, this new game mode is for you. Corner camping is at an all time high with both Bastion and Torbjorn’s setting up shop somewhere near the flag. During one of my matches we struggled to kill that corner camping combo until the very end of the game. As soon as we got in their enemy flag zone, myself (Zenyatta) and a Hanzo kept the hostiles out of their mark and D.VA ran 3 consecutive flags back and forth for the win. It was so fulfilling.

Also with the new update it looks like you are able to equip up to 4 sprays at once. I didn’t know this was going to be a feature so when I went to tag the wall and a menu popped up I thought I pressed the wrong button. The new system is going to take some getting used to but I’m sure I’ll catch on, I’ve become pretty adept at using the communication’s menu to quickly shoot out a “Thanks” to a teammate. (Or spam my Zenyatta “snowflake” voice line)

All-in-all a good update. I think it is great that Overwatch is stepping in as (at least for me) the definitive FPS game. These free events really keep me coming back to the game. Same with Square and the FFXV Moogle/Chocobo festival (Which I haven’t played yet).

This could mean great things for the consumers in the future if this pattern continues!